SW Mo. woman sentenced for college embezzlement

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. (AP) — A southwest Missouri woman who admitted embezzling more than $717,000 from a nursing college and its parent health care system will go to prison.

The U.S. Attorney's office says 39-year-old Amy Elaine Phillips, of Republic, was sentenced Friday to 30 months in federal prison without parole. She was also ordered to pay $718,000 in restitution to St. John's Mercy Health Care Systems, and more than $115,000 plus interest to the Internal Revenue Service.

Phillips worked from 2001 to early 2009 as an administrative assistant at St. John's College of Nursing, located at Southwest Baptist University in Bolivar.

In pleading guilty last fall, she admitted using a variety of schemes to steal funds intended for the college and the health system and failing to report the stolen money as income.